SCOTUS Says Lower Courts Can Rule On Jerusalem-Born Americans Listing Israel As Birthplace

Well, here's some good news to start the day!

You may recall the case of Menachem Zivotofsky, a child who was born in a hospital in West Jerusalem and whose parents wanted to list Jerusalem, Israel as his birthplace.

When his parents, Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, went to U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to apply for a passport for their son and asked that his country of birth be listed as Israel. The embassy refused, citing State Department policy that such passports list only 'Jerusalem,' with no country added.

So they sued.

Congress had already made a law permitting this in 2002, the same year Menachem was born, that required the State Department to list the country of origin as Israel on passports and birth certificates if a Jerusalem-born applicant requests it. Typically, President George W. Bush signed the bill but included a signing statement is that he considered this an unconstitutional breech of the president's "power to recognize foreign sovereigns."

Given it's feelings about Israel, I'm sure it's no surprise that the Obama Administration has gone the same way, allowing special 'rules' to be applied to Israel that are not applied to any other area in the world with 'disputed' territory between tow or more nations. For instance, an American born in Taipei, Taiwan can list his country of birth as either China, Taiwan, or The Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name. And to add insult to injury,the State Department permits Arabs born in what is now Israel prior to 1948 the option to have written on their documents that they were born in 'Palestine', a country that didn't exist then and doesn't exist now.

The lower courts refused to actually rule on the suit, claiming that it was a foreign policy issue and an issue of separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch, not of tort law.

But in a victory for the Zivotofskys, the Supreme Court sent it back to the lower courts, stating they can and must rule on this matter of law...by an 8-1 majority.

Do I have to tell anyone that the lone dissenting voice was Justice Breyer, one of three Jews currently on the Court?

Chief Justice John Roberts,who wrote the majority opinion stated: “The courts are fully capable of determining whether this statute may be given effect, or instead must be struck down in light of authority conferred on the executive by the Constitution."

“The federal courts are not being asked to supplant a foreign policy decision of the political branches with the courts’ own unmoored determination of what the United States policy toward Jerusalem should be,” Roberts said. “Instead, Zivotofsky requests that the courts enforce a specific statutory right. To resolve his claim, the judiciary must decide if Zivotofsky’s interpretation of the statute is correct, and whether the statute is constitutional. This is a familiar judicial exercise.”

So the lower court will have to rule on this now.

Given that this is discriminatory, I can't see how the appellate court could rule against them based on the equal protection clause.

Kol Hakavod!

SCOTUS Says Lower Courts Can Rule On Jerusalem-Born Americans Listing Israel As Birthplace

Well, here's some good news to start the day!

You may recall the case of Menachem Zivotofsky, a child who was born in a hospital in West Jerusalem and whose parents wanted to list Jerusalem, Israel as his birthplace.

When his parents, Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, went to U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to apply for a passport for their son and asked that his country of birth be listed as Israel. The embassy refused, citing State Department policy that such passports list only 'Jerusalem,' with no country added.

So they sued.

Congress had already made a law permitting this in 2002, the same year Menachem was born, that required the State Department to list the country of origin as Israel on passports and birth certificates if a Jerusalem-born applicant requests it. Typically, President George W. Bush signed the bill but included a signing statement is that he considered this an unconstitutional breech of the president's "power to recognize foreign sovereigns."

Given it's feelings about Israel, I'm sure it's no surprise that the Obama Administration has gone the same way, allowing special 'rules' to be applied to Israel that are not applied to any other area in the world with 'disputed' territory between tow or more nations. For instance, an American born in Taipei, Taiwan can list his country of birth as either China, Taiwan, or The Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name. And to add insult to injury,the State Department permits Arabs born in what is now Israel prior to 1948 the option to have written on their documents that they were born in 'Palestine', a country that didn't exist then and doesn't exist now.

The lower courts refused to actually rule on the suit, claiming that it was a foreign policy issue and an issue of separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch, not of tort law.

But in a victory for the Zivotofskys, the Supreme Court sent it back to the lower courts, stating they can and must rule on this matter of law...by an 8-1 majority.

Do I have to tell anyone that the lone dissenting voice was Justice Breyer, one of three Jews currently on the Court?

Chief Justice John Roberts,who wrote the majority opinion stated: “The courts are fully capable of determining whether this statute may be given effect, or instead must be struck down in light of authority conferred on the executive by the Constitution."

“The federal courts are not being asked to supplant a foreign policy decision of the political branches with the courts’ own unmoored determination of what the United States policy toward Jerusalem should be,” Roberts said. “Instead, Zivotofsky requests that the courts enforce a specific statutory right. To resolve his claim, the judiciary must decide if Zivotofsky’s interpretation of the statute is correct, and whether the statute is constitutional. This is a familiar judicial exercise.”

So the lower court will have to rule on this now.

Given that this is discriminatory, I can't see how the appellate court could rule against them based on the equal protection clause.

Kol Hakavod!

Israeli Village Saved From Death

Migron is a small Israeli community situated in the hill country about five miles north-east of Jerusalem. It was established back in 2002 as small village within easy commuting distance from Jerusalem, and has a population of about 500 people. Some would refer to the small community as an 'outpost'.

Shortly after Migron’s construction, Migron became a target of Peace Now, who started a legal campaign on behalf of several 'Palestinian' Arabs who claimed that their families owned the land upon which Migron sits. According to the Arabs, the land had been given to them by King Hussein of Jordan.

The residents of Migron claimed that they had legally purchased the land, and showed paperwork recording the sale and giving them legal title. The resident's attorneys made the argument all of Judea and Samaria were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 to 1967, and that therefore King Hussein had no right to 'give' land to anyone.

Israel's Supreme Court chose to ignore both the history of the area and the villager's legal paperwork showing ownership and ruled in favor of the Arabs. The Court ordered the army to remove the Israeli inhabitants and destroy all structures.

After several appeals which saw three homes demolished,a final 'death sentence' was pronounced on Migron on August 2, 2011, with the court ruling that Migron must be demolished and the inhabitants removed by March 31, 2012.

What happened next is poetic justice.

The Arabs and their supporters in Peace Now got greedy and filed a lawsuit in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, demanding that the Israeli government compensate them for the years during which Migron existed on what they had said was their land.

The Magistrate’s Court, just as a matter of routine, asked that the Arab plaintiffs provide their proof of ownership to the court.

Following that,the Arabs, who had managed to skate through Israel's Supreme Court without being asked this simple question suddenly withdrew their lawsuit.

Because the Arab plaintiffs had no proof of ownership and refused to provide any explanation of why they had withdrawn their suit, the Magistrate’s Court stopped the demolition of Migron's homes and the eviction of the families that live there.

This was fairly major news in Israel and a huge embarrassment for the Supreme Court, especially at a time when the Israeli government is crafting new legislation on new procedures in how Supreme Court justice are selected . The only explanation the Court gave was that “The High Court does not debate evidence.”

The entire fiasco sheds a great deal of light on the necessity of the pending legislation curbing the foreign funding of Israel's Left wing Organizations.

Peace Now is funded almost entirely by the EU and grants from places like the Tides Foundation and the New Israel Fund in America.The UK alone, for example, gave Peace Now £310,000 (about $500,000) in the period of 2008-11.

What they've done with the money, among other things, is to challenge the existence of any community in Israel they oppose as a 'settlement' in court with the idea of harassing Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria and flooding Israeli courts with bogus lawsuits no matter how weak the evidence is, all designed to make it more difficult for the Israeli government to build housing and infrastructure.

In the recent past they tried exactly the same strategy they used in Migron - better known as lawfare - in unsuccessful attempts to have the Israeli communities of of Kiryat Netafim and the Jerusalem suburbs of Ma'aleh Adumim and Har Homa destroyed and the land turned over to Israel's enemies. Needless to say, they have never done anything to challenge the widespread illegal 'Palestinian' construction in Judea and Samaria or in East Jerusalem. In fact they've even attempted to intervene when the City of Jerusalem has attempted to demolish unsafe and illegal structures built by Arabs without permits or any compliance with building and safety codes that were actually hazards to adjacent structures.

Given the state of Middle East peace, one could be forgiven for considering Peace Now's activities as borderline treason.

For now, their attempt to throw their fellow Jews out of their homes in Migron has been foiled, appropriately, by their own greed and zeal to accomplish it at all costs. Hopefully, when Israel limits foreign funding for groups like Peace Now their contemptible efforts to wage lawfare against their own country will be curtailed.

Meanwhile, their fellow citizens can do what Israelis do best,build. Let a thousand bulldozers bloom!

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Israeli Village Saved From Death

Migron is a small Israeli community situated in the hill country about five miles north-east of Jerusalem. It was established back in 2002 as small village within easy commuting distance from Jerusalem, and has a population of about 500 people. Some would refer to the small community as an 'outpost'.

Shortly after Migron’s construction, Migron became a target of Peace Now, who started a legal campaign on behalf of several 'Palestinian' Arabs who claimed that their families owned the land upon which Migron sits. According to the Arabs, the land had been given to them by King Hussein of Jordan.

The residents of Migron claimed that they had legally purchased the land, and showed paperwork recording the sale and giving them legal title. The resident's attorneys made the argument all of Judea and Samaria were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 to 1967, and that therefore King Hussein had no right to 'give' land to anyone.

Israel's Supreme Court chose to ignore both the history of the area and the villager's legal paperwork showing ownership and ruled in favor of the Arabs. The Court ordered the army to remove the Israeli inhabitants and destroy all structures.

After several appeals which saw three homes demolished,a final 'death sentence' was pronounced on Migron on August 2, 2011, with the court ruling that Migron must be demolished and the inhabitants removed by March 31, 2012.

What happened next is poetic justice.

The Arabs and their supporters in Peace Now got greedy and filed a lawsuit in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, demanding that the Israeli government compensate them for the years during which Migron existed on what they had said was their land.

The Magistrate’s Court, just as a matter of routine, asked that the Arab plaintiffs provide their proof of ownership to the court.

Following that,the Arabs, who had managed to skate through Israel's Supreme Court without being asked this simple question suddenly withdrew their lawsuit.

Because the Arab plaintiffs had no proof of ownership and refused to provide any explanation of why they had withdrawn their suit, the Magistrate’s Court stopped the demolition of Migron's homes and the eviction of the families that live there.

This was fairly major news in Israel and a huge embarrassment for the Supreme Court, especially at a time when the Israeli government is crafting new legislation on new procedures in how Supreme Court justice are selected . The only explanation the Court gave was that “The High Court does not debate evidence.”

The entire fiasco sheds a great deal of light on the necessity of the pending legislation curbing the foreign funding of Israel's Left wing Organizations.

Peace Now is funded almost entirely by the EU and grants from places like the Tides Foundation and the New Israel Fund in America.The UK alone, for example, gave Peace Now £310,000 (about $500,000) in the period of 2008-11.

What they've done with the money, among other things, is to challenge the existence of any community in Israel they oppose as a 'settlement' in court with the idea of harassing Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria and flooding Israeli courts with bogus lawsuits no matter how weak the evidence is, all designed to make it more difficult for the Israeli government to build housing and infrastructure.

In the recent past they tried exactly the same strategy they used in Migron - better known as lawfare - in unsuccessful attempts to have the Israeli communities of of Kiryat Netafim and the Jerusalem suburbs of Ma'aleh Adumim and Har Homa destroyed and the land turned over to Israel's enemies. Needless to say, they have never done anything to challenge the widespread illegal 'Palestinian' construction in Judea and Samaria or in East Jerusalem. In fact they've even attempted to intervene when the City of Jerusalem has attempted to demolish unsafe and illegal structures built by Arabs without permits or any compliance with building and safety codes that were actually hazards to adjacent structures.

Given the state of Middle East peace, one could be forgiven for considering Peace Now's activities as borderline treason.

For now, their attempt to throw their fellow Jews out of their homes in Migron has been foiled, appropriately, by their own greed and zeal to accomplish it at all costs. Hopefully, when Israel limits foreign funding for groups like Peace Now their contemptible efforts to wage lawfare against their own country will be curtailed.

Meanwhile, their fellow citizens can do what Israelis do best,build. Let a thousand bulldozers bloom!

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Isreal Will Build New Neighborhood In Jerusalem

Just this past week, a new neighborhood in the southeastern part of Jerusalem was approved in the area now known as Givat HaMatos with 2,610 apartments. Apparently some of the units will be reserved for an extension of the Arab neighborhood Beit Safafa, although why is beyond me. It would make a great deal more sense to simply take over part of the southern extension of Beit Safafa and connect up with Gilo.

Still, it's welcome news for those suffering from Israel's housing crunch. As I always say, build the land and the rest will take care of itself. Let a thousand bulldozers bloom!

(Hat tip, Carl)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Isreal Will Build New Neighborhood In Jerusalem

Just this past week, a new neighborhood in the southeastern part of Jerusalem was approved in the area now known as Givat HaMatos with 2,610 apartments. Apparently some of the units will be reserved for an extension of the Arab neighborhood Beit Safafa, although why is beyond me. It would make a great deal more sense to simply take over part of the southern extension of Beit Safafa and connect up with Gilo.

Still, it's welcome news for those suffering from Israel's housing crunch. As I always say, build the land and the rest will take care of itself. Let a thousand bulldozers bloom!

(Hat tip, Carl)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!